T-Mobile, Sprint To Combine in Long-Awaited Merger

Overland Park-based Sprint has officially agreed to merge with Washington-based T-Mobile in an estimated $146 billion dollar deal with Sprint valued at an estimated $59 billion. The combined company will not bear the Sprint name and will instead just be called T-Mobile but they also plan to keep a headquarters in Kansas as well as one in Washington.

Today we spoke with Kansas City Area Development Council President and CEO Tim Cowden to get his thoughts on the deal. “Kansas City has a lot of momentum, a lot of the region is moving very much forward,” he said. “We are going to look at this as an opportunity to attract greater investment and more jobs in time.”

Cowden said the merger, pending regulatory approval, confirms the company’s main headquarters will stay in Washington with Overland Park serving as a sort of “HQ 2.” “5G is the future and for Sprint or TMobile to go it alone and invest, it’s just not feasible,” added Cowden. “There are great synergies between the two companies to combine and invest and provide greater value.”

Like Cowden mentioned, all of this is pending regulatory approval, so any speculation right now about what would happen with jobs or expansion is just that, speculation. But what Cowden can say for sure is that “the entrepreneurial and tech community here is growing and there are a lot of similarities between here and Seattle without all the cost.” He says the KCADC’s first step is to prepare right now to build a case to attract more investment and more jobs as the new company is formed.